Degenkolb snatches second Vuelta stage win

Up-and-coming German sprinter John Degenkolb claimed his second stage of the Vuelta a Espana when he outpowered Italian Daniele Bennati and Belgium's Gianni Meersman in a mass charge for the line.

Seemingly oblivious to the heatwave that has not let up since the Vuelta started last weekend, the Argos-Shimano rider made a late surge in the Logrono city centre for a convincing victory on stage five to reinforce his lead in the points classification.

Overall, Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez of the Katusha squad continued to lead the race by one second from Britain's Chris Froome, with Spain's Alberto Contador in third.

Australia's Allan Davis, riding for GreenEDGE, finished seventh in the stage to move to second place on the points classification with 29 behind Degenkolb (50).

Davis' Australian and GreenEDGE team-mate Simon Clarke, who won stage four, is third on the points standing and leads the mountain classification.

With a noisy demonstration by some 200 anti-austerity cuts protesters in the background, Degenkolb says the stage unfolded perfectly.

"We wanted a really small group to get in the early break, and only one guy got away, and then after he was caught late on we (Argos-Shimano) and Katusha moved to the front to control the final lap of the race," he said.

"Just like when I won on Sunday (Dutch team-mate) Koen De Kort dropped me off in exactly the right place for my last sprint.

"That last sprint for the line was really fast, I'd be curious to see how quick it was, but I didn't expect to win by such a big margin over Bennati."